Two Barriers to Converting to Christianity | Matthew 21:23-27

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily, This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman

[00:00:08] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths. I have a question for you today.

[00:00:12] What keeps people from believing in Jesus?

[00:00:16] What are two barriers that prohibit people from putting their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ?

[00:00:22] Well, we're going to discover that today. Now, I know you're probably thinking,

[00:00:25] well, there's a lot of different reasons.

[00:00:27] We're going to talk about two specific reasons that in most cases, I believe,

[00:00:31] are the predominant reasons that keep people away from coming to faith in Christ.

[00:00:36] We're in the book of Matthew chapter 21, and this is what it says beginning at verse 23,

[00:00:41] and I'll walk you through this. And when he entered the temple, namely Jesus,

[00:00:45] the chief priest and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching

[00:00:49] and said, by what authority are you doing these things?

[00:00:52] And who gave you this authority? We talked about that yesterday.

[00:00:55] Jesus answered them. I also will ask you one question.

[00:00:59] And if you tell me the answer, then I'll also tell you by what authority I do these things.

[00:01:05] The baptism of John from where did it come from?

[00:01:08] From heaven or from man?

[00:01:11] And they discussed it among themselves saying, if we say from heaven,

[00:01:15] he will say to us, why then did you not believe in him?

[00:01:19] Here's the first reason people don't come to faith in Christ.

[00:01:24] Number one, they harden their heart.

[00:01:28] Now John the Baptist was the preparer of the way.

[00:01:31] He pointed to Jesus and said he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[00:01:36] He was the forerunner of Christ and he consistently pointed to Jesus as the coming Messiah.

[00:01:43] And then of course Jesus did incredible miracles right in front of the chief priest,

[00:01:47] scribes and Pharisees right in front of their eyes.

[00:01:50] And yet they didn't believe John and they didn't believe what they saw with their eyes

[00:01:55] that manifested Jesus as Messiah.

[00:01:58] Why is that? Because they harden their heart.

[00:02:02] Even though the facts were in front of them, it was like they were saying,

[00:02:05] don't confuse me with the facts.

[00:02:08] We're going to resist. We're going to rebuff.

[00:02:11] We're going to reject Christ as the Savior, as a Lord, as a Messiah, as a King,

[00:02:16] no matter what. Don't confuse us with the facts.

[00:02:19] We're hardening our heart. Now they didn't say that, but that's exactly what happened.

[00:02:24] Satan had blinded them to the fact that Jesus was the coming Messiah.

[00:02:28] Now I say this because this is part of what's happening today in people's lives,

[00:02:34] even though many people here in the United States have heard the proclamation of the gospel,

[00:02:39] have heard that Jesus is the coming Messiah.

[00:02:42] So many of them have rejected that and rebuffed it and not believed it.

[00:02:47] Why? Because they've hardened their hearts.

[00:02:50] It's almost like they're saying, don't confuse me with the facts.

[00:02:53] I had a guy, an atheist, I had a podcast here about two weeks ago

[00:02:57] that proclaimed Christ as Messiah.

[00:02:59] And I talked about three reasons you can believe in the Bible

[00:03:02] and this atheist, as a matter of fact his buzzword is Bible basher,

[00:03:06] had all these different kind of reasons of why he doesn't believe in Christ

[00:03:10] and I kind of retaliated with some good things, I think, to help him believe in Christ.

[00:03:15] And I could have argued with him until the cows came home.

[00:03:19] I don't know where that statement came from.

[00:03:21] Until the cows came home and he still would not believe why he had hardened his heart.

[00:03:27] So you have people you try to tell about the Lord Jesus Christ

[00:03:30] and they simply won't believe it.

[00:03:32] They'll reject it. They rebuff it.

[00:03:34] Now as we talked about here 10 days ago,

[00:03:36] don't ever forget to pray for them and don't give up on praying for them.

[00:03:40] But basically the reason they don't believe is because they've hardened their hearts.

[00:03:45] Okay, the second reason why so many people reject the Savior

[00:03:49] is because they're too concerned of what other people will think if they come to faith.

[00:03:54] That's what happened here in this text. Listen as we read on.

[00:03:58] And they said, if we say from man, in other words, John's baptism is from man,

[00:04:02] if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet.

[00:04:08] So they answered Jesus. We don't know.

[00:04:11] In other words, if we say that Jesus was the Messiah

[00:04:16] and John proclaimed him to be the Messiah,

[00:04:19] that means that we have to believe in Christ that Jesus is Messiah

[00:04:23] and we better quit doing what we're going doing

[00:04:25] and we're going to lose our position.

[00:04:26] We're going to lose our job.

[00:04:27] We're going to lose our credibility.

[00:04:29] People are going to think, oh, what kind of backstabbers are you guys believe in Christ at one time?

[00:04:35] Then you don't. That kind of thing.

[00:04:37] So they hardened their heart.

[00:04:38] But then they were afraid of what the crowds would think

[00:04:42] because they were afraid the crowds obviously thought that Jesus was a Messiah

[00:04:46] and John the Baptist was a forerunner of Christ.

[00:04:49] And if they said he's not the Christ, they could have been annihilated.

[00:04:55] They could have been overcome.

[00:04:57] They could have been killed by the crowd because the crowd thought that John the Baptist was a prophet and Jesus was the Messiah.

[00:05:05] So if they said that, you know, he wasn't the Messiah,

[00:05:08] the crowd might get them and they might lose their position or even worse, lose their lives.

[00:05:13] So that's where we're at.

[00:05:15] So here's what happens in the world today too.

[00:05:18] People oftentimes reject Christ as Savior because they're concerned about what other people will think.

[00:05:23] Their family, their friends, their coworkers.

[00:05:26] If I convert to Christianity, what are people going to think of me?

[00:05:30] You know, a lot of people don't believe that Jesus is a Christ.

[00:05:33] And so if I convert to Christianity, I might lose friendships.

[00:05:37] I could even lose my job.

[00:05:39] If I start talking about him as Savior and Lord Redeemer and King

[00:05:42] and so a lot of people don't come to faith because they're concerned

[00:05:45] of what other people might think.

[00:05:47] Now here's the thing.

[00:05:48] Bottom line is you've come to faith in Christ.

[00:05:52] Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit penetrated your heart,

[00:05:55] removed the blinders, enabled you to see Christ for who he is.

[00:05:59] And now you're in the kingdom of God.

[00:06:02] Now you're in the community of Christ.

[00:06:04] Now you're in the family of God.

[00:06:05] Thanks be to God.

[00:06:08] And so here's the bottom line of this message.

[00:06:10] There's a lot of people that reject Christ today

[00:06:13] for the two reasons we've cited today.

[00:06:16] But you have not rejected Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[00:06:20] You've accepted Christ as Savior and Lord.

[00:06:23] So the bottom line is thank God for your conversion experience.

[00:06:27] Thank God that you were chosen to come to faith.

[00:06:31] And the Holy Spirit broke down your stubborn, resisting will.

[00:06:34] And now you trust in Jesus and you're part of the kingdom.

[00:06:38] How cool is that?

[00:06:40] And so you can say with the hymnist,

[00:06:42] Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

[00:06:47] I once was lost, but now am found was blind.

[00:06:52] But now I see your spiritual eyes been opened.

[00:06:57] You acknowledge Jesus as Savior.

[00:06:59] Thank God for what the Holy Spirit has done in your life.

[00:07:05] And that is today's Daily Truth.

[00:07:08] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:07:11] Thank you for tuning into Daily Truths with Dave Alman.

[00:07:14] Pastor Dave Alman is the pastor of Monhope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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[00:07:30] Come back tomorrow for your next Daily Truth.